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CompaniesDevina Sengupta
, Shayan Ghosh
, Gopika Gopakumar
4 min
read
26 Mar 2025, 05:30 AM
ISTThe search for a new CEO stems from recent regulatory scrutiny on the private lender.SummaryEgon Zehnder has been the go-to firm to search for private bank CEOs in the past, with HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and RBL Bank giving it the mandate.
The board of IndusInd Bank is expected to appoint a search firm to look for a new chief executive officer even as it awaits an audit report on accounting lapses.
Some of India’s top executive search firms told Mint that they are scouting for the mandate and have even received calls from senior banking sector officials to be in the race for the top job. A person aware of the development said that IndusInd Bank’s board of directors recently met and decided to appoint a search firm this week to kickstart the process of hiring its new CEO.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the bank’s board of directors to send a list of external candidates to choose the bank’s next chief executive, according to reports. Bank boards usually send the list of candidates to the RBI about six months before the incumbent’s term ends.The search for a new CEO stems from recent regulatory scrutiny on the private lender. It started with RBI’s 6 March letter to IndusInd–a gist of which the bank shared with the stock exchanges a day later. The regulator approved a year’s term for current CEO Sumant Kathpalia instead of the three-year extension the board sought.
That did not prepare the markets for what came three days later after the close of trading hours. On 10 March evening, the bank admitted that in the September-October quarter, it identified discrepancies in its derivatives portfolio. Shares of the lender plunged 27.2% the next day.CXOs show interestRBI has urged the IndusInd CEO and his deputy to step down as soon as replacements are found and the central bank has approved them, Reuters reported on 21 March, citing four people familiar with the conversations. The bank called it “factually incorrect” and said the “information circulating is entirely inaccurate and does not reflect the true situation.”
Mint spoke to partners at India’s top search firms and found there is a rush to get the mandate.
“We have received calls from CXOs in the banking sector who wanted to know more about the IndusInd post,” said one of the top headhunters in the BFSI sector. “This will be an important search since the new CEO will have a lot of cleaning up to do.”Mint mailed queries to the top search firms popularly known as SHREK–Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry.
A spokesperson for Heidrick & Struggles declined to comment, citing “client confidentiality”, while a spokesperson for Russell Reynolds said it “won’t be able to con